Dry run becomes a hit

Edited by Daisy Dumas

He's planning to be on the straight and narrow for the duration of long, cold July, but Roy Billing's on-screen character is not best known for worthy sobriety.

The Underbelly actor on Thursday helped launch the sixth year of Dry July, giving up the grog to raise money for cancer research.

That the launch comes the day after the latest Donald Mackay revelations came to light is not lost on Billing, who played Robert ''Bob'' Trimbole in Underbelly: a Tale of Two Cities.

Trimbole, associated with the Calabrian Mafia, is thought to have organised the 1977 hit on Mackay that infamously cost him his life - and formed one of Australia's most intriguing cold cases.

''It was brought home to me last night,'' he told The Diary, after the ABC aired the news story and a friend sent him a text with the joke: ''They're onto you.''

The 2009 series saw Billing at his shadiest, playing the gangster alongside Matt Newton as New Zealand heroin kingpin, Terry Clark.

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''It's quite amazing, you do these things and you research them a lot and then there it is in your face, and, wow, it's really happened.''

The actor, from Coogee, said the whispers over Mackay's demise have always been rife. ''There have been so many rumours about what happened to the body - they put it through a mincer, turned it into fertiliser - and now this tip. I wouldn't be surprised if they found nothing, [the hitmen] would have been more careful.''

Either way, he said the $200,000 reward may have done the trick - and ''whoever gets the reward would probably be advised to leave the country''. Trimbole fled the country and died in Spain, he said.

Crooks and cannabis aside, Billing, who said he has always enjoyed a drink, said a dozen of his close friends have signed up to the charity initiative since he first became involved with Dry July five years ago as part of his support for the Prince of Wales Hospital. He was joined by Underbelly's Danielle Cormack, radio presenter Adam Spencer, actress Alyssa McClelland and singer Barry Southgate at the Museum of Contemporary Art breakfast launch.

''It's a fun thing to do, just seeing where all the money goes is really worthwhile,'' he said. ''You feel better after a month - you lose a bit of weight. Not that it inspires me to give up for the whole year.''

Martin hopes Madden has a 'beautiful awakening' after drug find

While Seal's Twitter rant about the media and the Star for sharing Joel Madden's marijuana misdemeanour was impulsive and vitriolic, his fellow red couch coach on The Voice, Ricky Martin, has taken a drastically different approach. Spreading his trademark message of love and peace, Martin faced the media on Thursday morning and managed to paint the whole saga in a positive light. Martin - who has been ensconced in James Packer's former marital home on Bondi Beach with his partner Carlos Gonzalez Abella and their twin boys Valentino and Matteo for the duration of his stint on The Voice - told 2DayFM's Kyle and Jackie O show he hoped the incident had been a ''beautiful awakening'' to Madden.

''Joel, love and light to your family and I wish … that this has become a beautiful awakening for you,'' Martin said when asked about his thoughts on the headlines over the past 24 hours..

Madden was asked to leave the Star in line with the hotel's zero tolerance policy on drugs after a cleaner found less than 5 grams of marijuana in his apartment at the casino on Sunday night. No charges were laid.

Seal leapt to the defence of his friend but later apologised, blaming the Twitter rant on being homesick.

His excuse holds little water - he was reunited with his four children with ex-wife Heidi Klum as recently as 48 hours before the outburst. Fairfax Media has learned the singer, 50, was reunited with his children on Sunday night and treated them with a trip to the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney on Tuesday. Photographs of the outing are set to appear in a woman's magazine on Monday.

Jo Casamento

Ledger's father braves LA pilgrimage

Returning to Los Angeles, the town that catapulted actor Heath Ledger to international stardom, is not always an easy journey for his father Kim to make.

''To come back without him, with him not being here, is a little hard, because when I'm on the plane and I look over [the city] and I remember, it was always such a joy to be here,'' he said. ''He is my only son, so it's pretty tough.''

Kim has returned to Los Angeles this week as an ambassador for Australians in Film, the LA-based industry body that now awards the Heath Ledger Scholarship Award annually.

Heath Ledger died in 2008.

''We always felt when we came into LA, this was his city,'' Kim said.

This year's recipient, 28-year-old actor James Mackay, was named by Kim at a gala dinner in LA's Hollywood Hills. Mackay is not yet a household name, but he graduated from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, in Heath's home town, Perth. His television credits include Rescue: Special Ops and The Straits. He will also be in the film Singularity, with Josh Hartnett.

''I trained in Heath's] home town; a lot of people we worked with as students had known him,'' Mackay said. ''[To us] his career is iconic in terms of what can be achieved.''

Kim said it took him several years to fully realise the impact of the scholarship. ''It is something which mirrors Heath's own life, his ethos and his generosity; carrying his mates along with him, helping someone, giving someone accommodation,'' he said.

The scholarship includes a return airfare to Los Angeles, a one-year acting course at the Stella Adler Academy, a ''VIP casting package'' and $10,000 cash. It is intended to give an emerging Australian talent the best chance of success in Hollywood.

Mackay was chosen from 15 finalists and two runners-up, Georgia Flood (Wentworth, House Husbands) and Will Howarth (Home and Away); each receive an airfare to Los Angeles and a ''VIP casting package''.

Mackay said he was elated with the award. ''It's a validation that you're on the right path, and it's thrilling beyond belief, but also very sobering. The significance is huge, the real scale of it has only begun to sink in since I've been over here [in LA],'' he said. ''I want to do something good with it, and return that expression of trust by taking some good, strong steps with it.''

Michael Idato

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A LAMA GREETED BY RABBITS

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Back-up vocals in campaign for better deal

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